Massive Winter Storm Bringing ‘Widespread Hazardous’ Conditions Across US

An updated map released by the National Weather Service on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, shows warnings and advisories amid a large winter storm currently impacting the United States. The pink areas represent winter storm warnings, while the bright orange areas signal blizzard warnings. (National Weather Service)

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday there will be “widespread” hazards from the western United States to the Great Lakes region starting Tuesday.

“Several weather systems will stretch impacts from Coast to Coast,” said a Tuesday afternoon bulletin issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), which said there will be “widespread hazardous travel” conditions. “Heavy snow to low elevations in the West will extend across the Intermountain West to the Great Lakes” along with “strong thunderstorms and damaging winds in the Mid-Atlantic,” according to the agency.

As of Tuesday afternoon, blizzard warnings were issued in parts of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Winter storm warnings were issued across a broader swath of area, impacting the same states as well as Nebraska, Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, Washington state, and California. Advisories were issued for portions of Pennsylvania and western New York.

“A major winter storm is expected to deliver a large swath of heavy snow from the West Coast to the Northeast through Thursday,” the agency also stated, adding that “freezing rain from the upper Midwest through the lower Great Lakes into [New] England” is expected.

Portions of northern Illinois, southern Michigan, and southern New York state could get up to half an inch of ice, which could topple power lines and cause outages, AccuWeather said.

Forecasters with AccuWeather wrote that the storm will “stretch 2,600 miles from coast to coast across the northern” U.S. that will “unload heavy snow over the Upper Midwest while also spreading an icy mix from near the Iowa-Nebraska border to the northern New England coast.”

“There is a high probability that Minneapolis will pick up 18 inches of snow or more from the storm,” AccuWeather’s Matt Benz wrote. “The February record of 13.8 inches of snow from a single storm is likely to be smashed.”

The storm was to begin around midday and continue through Thursday morning in parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with winds gusting as high as 50 mph in some places and wind chills as frigid as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. NWS service meteorologist Frank Pereira told The Associated Press that the system was expected to affect about 43 million Americans.

Forecasters warned of life-threatening conditions, with bitter cold and strong winds bringing danger beyond the snow.

Temperatures could plunge to minus 15 to minus 20 degrees on Thursday and minus 25 degrees Friday in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wind chills may fall to 50 degrees below zero (minus 46 Celsius), said Nathan Rick, a meteorologist in Grand Forks.

Wind gusts of 35 mph will be common in western and central Minnesota, with some reaching 50 mph. That will result in “significant blowing and drifting snow with whiteout conditions in open areas,” the NWS warned.

Meanwhile, rain is forecast for St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh due to the storm, AccuWeather notes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.